ABSTRACT
Technology shifts are commonly called industrial revolutions because they are closely related to productivity and have caused disruptive change in manufacturing processes since the 18th century. The first industrial revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. Between both the digital and physical worlds, data could be addressed as the raw material to be converted into useful knowledge to realize the expected added value from the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). The 4IR is pushing for new protocols, such as OPC-UA, RTI DDS-Secure or MQTT, that can meet these requirements, enabling interoperability between different devices, real-time communication and a seamless flow. The data life cycle is the 4IR backbone for merging digital and physical worlds. This data life cycle has been adopted around the world, albeit according to slightly different approaches. The first steps towards the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) were described in 2012 within the framework of the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
